A few weeks ago…I was DONE!
Completely and utterly tapped out.
I do that to myself from time-to-time…not really meaning to…but there was a lot on the go. Between work and the kids activities and then a few personal things…I was run off my feet, emotionally spent, simply exhausted to the point…I actually showed up at my counsellor’s office to see if there was a bit more to it!
“You’re exhausted,” she told me. “Nothing else can fit inside that brain of yours…you need to relax.”
Yeah…so about that…
It was a Friday afternoon and, since I didn’t have the kids for the weekend, I ran by the supermarket and picked up a few of my favourite foods. Then, I headed home with intentions of completely wasting my weekend…putting on my jammies, turning on Netflix and shutting myself down.
But here’s the thing…I don’t just “watch” Netflix the way most people do. To me, Netflix is a “reward” for when I get a few things done and often, I’m multitasking watching TV while I’m doing something else…for example, I’m watching a show while scrubbing floors, cleaning out a closet, working on a project. Netflix is often running on my computer in a small window as I work…it’s background noise where, every now and then, a show pulls me in but for the most part, I don’t just put my feet up, pop a bit of popcorn, and watch a show.
I’d like to, but the sheer GUILT of knowing there’s a million other things to do won’t allow me to relax. I can’t sit still knowing there’s a to-do list of chores the length of my arm, or work that needs to get done…tweets that need tweeting and blogs that need blogging.
I just had a counsellor tell me I needed to relax or I was going to crack and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how I was going to let that happen.
So, I started by looking for a series…a commitment for the weekend that would have me watching multiple episodes…something I could get into with a little romance, a bit of intrigue and mystery. I found “Gran Hotel”…a Spanish Drama set in the 1900s that begins with Julio arriving at the Gran Hotel in search of his sister who hadn’t been heard of from her family for quite some time. Julio bamboozles them into hiring him as a footman and it’s not very long before he’s falling for the daughter or the wealthy hotelier and they end up having a dangerous affair…all while he’s trying to figure out what happened to his sister and dealing with multiple dramas that continue to pop up along the way…you know, a whole whack of sex and secrets!
I was hooked.
The problem being…it was SUBTITLED!
At first, I was SURE that the subtitles would go away and this Spanish cast would start speaking English but NOPE…I spent the ENTIRE WEEKEND reading screen after screen of three seasons and 66 episodes of the most intriguing Spanish soap opera I’ve ever watched! (Not that I’ve watched many Spanish soap operas!)
At one point…the guilt took over a little and I TRIED to clean out the pantry, but it was hard to clean while also reading so I threw in the towel and curled up with the show trying to will myself of “just one more show and I’ll have a shower” but nope…one turned into two turned into eight.
I was so deep in that I read and watched late into the night on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday evenings AND I had to take Monday off in order to finish the final episodes!
I don’t recommend you do it all in one weekend the way I did. However, I ALSO don’t recommend you get to a point where you’re so busy and so completely exhausted that you completely forget to take a bit of time for your own mental health.
Tapping out and spending the weekend watching/reading Netflix was completely what I needed. I allowed myself to get lost in something that had nothing to do with anything but taking a big vacation from my brain…where I couldn’t do anything else BUT watch TV in my jammies, with my snacks, and my pup curled at my side.
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Check out the trailer for Gran Hotel…it’s in Spanish and there aren’t any subtitles on the video, so if you don’t speak Spanish there’s no need to worry…you’ll be speaking it fluently after binge watching an entire weekend of the show!
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Disclaimer: I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with Netflix #StreamTeam….however, as always, opinions and stories are my own.